Kenya-Ethiopia border post nears completion

A border post between Kenya and Ethiopia is expected to boost trade and facilitate fast clearance of goods between both countries after its completion in May.

The one-stop border post is located at Moyale, a market town that straddles both sides of the border, with the larger portion in the Oromia region of southern Ethiopia and the smaller part in Marsabit County in northern Kenya.

The Sh843-million construction of the post has been funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB) as part of a 2011 agreement reached between both countries to enhance cross-border trade.

The border post will also link in with the Isiolo-Moyale Development Corridor project, a 500-km road connecting Kenya's Mombasa port to Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. In recent years the road has fallen into disrepair, hindering trade between the two nations, but upgrading works are expected to be complete by September.

The road upgrade is part of the Lamu-Port-South Sudan Ethiopia Transport (LAPSSET) corridor, a Sh13.7-billion project being funded by the Kenyan government and the European Union.

The project is designed to remove over-dependence on Mombasa port as well as develop Kenya's little-utilised northern frontier. The key locations in the project are Lamu and Isiolo in Kenya, Juba in Southern Sudan and Addis Ababa in Ethiopia.